Looming Grad Shortage in California
November 17, 2009 | Todd G.
How will the budget cuts in California (and nationally) hurt the economy in the long term? The San Francisco Examiner considers this question in a recent article. They interviewed experts who claim that California will face a shortage of college grads that could have a major impact on hiring. One of their experts, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, pointed out that the issues with college funding were not going away anytime soon. This could mean that the shortage would be longer and more pronounced than current predictions.
Reich’s solution is to place a surcharge on businesses who use skilled labor with revenues going to support the UC system. Yeah, that sounds smart. Charge companies even more to do business in a state that already makes it incredibly tough to do business. In my opinion, it will further alienate California and force many businesses to pack up and run to another state like…Hmmm…I don’t know…Nevada?! So you increase the number of college grads with your “surcharge” scheme, but once graduated those grads would likely move to another state where a business can offer them more money and benefits than those in California.
Plus, as per my other post about private schools, from what I can tell they’re only talking about the UC system in the article. There are plenty of other colleges in California feeding the state’s businesses college grads without having to rely on only UC schools.
